Security Group Tags

About Security Group Tags

If you use Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to define and use security group tag (SGT) for classifying traffic in a Cisco TrustSec network, you can write access control rules that use SGT as matching criteria. Thus, you can block or allow access based on security group membership rather than IP addresses.

In ISE, you can create a SGT and assign host or network IP addresses to each tag. If you assign an SGT to a user's account, the SGT is assigned to the user's traffic. After you configure FDM-managed device to connect to an ISE server and create the SGT, you can create SGT groups in Security Cloud Control and build access control rules around them. Note that you must configure ISE's SGT Exchange Protocol (SXP) mapping before you can associate an SGT to an FDM-managed device. See Security Group Tag Exchange Protocol in the Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide of the version you are currently running for more information.

When an FDM-managed device evaluates SGT as a traffic matching criteria for an access control rule, it uses the following priority:

  1. The source SGT defined in the packet, if any. No destination matching is done using this technique. For the SGT to be in the packet, the switches and routers in the network must be configured to add them. See the ISE documentation for information on how to implement this method.

  2. The SGT assigned to the user session, as downloaded from the ISE session directory. You need to enable the option to listen to session directory information for this kind of SGT matching, but this option is on by default when you first create the ISE identity source. The SGT can be matched to source or destination. Although not required, you would also normally set up a passive authentication identity rule, using the ISE identity source along with an AD realm, to collect user identity information.

  3. The SGT-to-IP address mapping downloaded using SXP. If the IP address is within the range for an SGT, then the traffic matches the access control rule that uses the SGT. The SGT can be matched to source or destination.

    Note

    You cannot use the information retrieved from ISE directly in an access control rule. Instead, you need to create SGT groups, which refer to the downloaded SGT information. Your SGT groups can refer to more than one SGT, so you can apply policy based on a relevant collections of tags if that is appropriate.

Version Support

Security Cloud Control currently supports SGT and SGT groups on FDM-managed devices running Version 6.5 and later. an FDM-managed device allows you to configure and connect to an ISE server in Version 6.5 and later but not does not support SGT configuration in the UI until Version 6.7.

From the FDM-managed UI, this means that an FDM-managed device running Version 6.5 or later can download SXP mappings of SGTs but cannot be manually added to objects or access control rules. To make changes to the SGTs for devices running Version 6.5 or Version 6.6, you must use the ISE UI. If the device running Version 6.5 is onboarded to Security Cloud Control, however, you can see the current SGTs associated with the device and create SGT groups.

SGT in Security Cloud Control

Security Group Tags

SGTs are read-only in Security Cloud Control. You cannot create or edit an SGT in Security Cloud Control. To create an SGT, see the Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide of the version your are currently running.

SGT Groups

Note

An FDM-managed device refers to groups of SGTs as SGT dynamic objects. In Security Cloud Control, these lists of tags are currently called SGT groups. You can create an SGT group in Security Cloud Control without referring to the FDM-managed device or ISE UI.

Use SGT groups to identify source or destination addresses based on an SGT assigned by ISE. You can then use the objects in access control rules for purposes of defining traffic matching criteria. You cannot use the information retrieved from ISE directly in an access control rule. Instead, you need to create SGT groups, which refer to the downloaded SGT information.

Your SGT groups can refer to more than one SGT, so you can apply policy based on relevant collections of tags if that is appropriate.

In order to create an SGT group in Security Cloud Control, you must have at least one SGT already configured and SGT mappings from an ISE server configured for the FDM-managed console of the device you want to use. Note that if more than one FDM-managed device is associated with the same ISE server, an SGT or SGT group can be applied to more than one device. If a device is not associated with an ISE server, you cannot include SGT objects in your access control rule, or apply an SGT group to that device configuration.

SGT Groups in Rules

SGT groups can be added to access control rules; they appear as source or destination network objects. For more information about how networks work in rules, see Source and Destination Criteria in an FDM Access Control Rule.

You can create an SGT group from the Objects page. See Create an SGT Group for more information.